A little early cap dancing
by Ourdaywillcome on Mar 28, 2010 11:07 AM EDT
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Every day we hear more news about teams clearing cap room for the summer Free Agency bidding. I think it's safe to assume that everyone on ROF knows the Bobcats will be spectators because we lack enough salary cap room to go after anything more than a towel boy. (If you didn't know that, you do now.) Next season isn't going to bring many new faces to the team. Barring an unlikely trade, there is almost no chance whatsoever the Bobcats will have a pick in the draft this season and I can't think of a team that would be willing to let Jordan buy a decent pick with cash even if MJ were willing. Come fall, we'll be looking at another season locked firmly into contract hell. I think the team should be commended for the trades they DID make this season under similar contract restrictions. Jackson was a steal, as were Theo and Tyrus. But I did spend a brief bit of time this morning looking around at the Bobcats' near future.
It doesn't matter whether you loved or hated the Okafor/Chandler deal, the payoff is almost upon us. Had we kept Emeka we'd now be staring at the final three most expensive years of his deal. Instead, we have just one more season with our overpaid and injury-prone center. After next season more than 1/3 of the team salary will vanish. The biggest chunk will be the almost 13 million going into Tyson Chandler's pocket, but we will also be opening almost seven million with Nazr Mohammed's expiring contract. In addition, we'll free up about a million on Stephen Graham.
On top of all this, our pickups from this season are in the mix as well. Larry Hughes is still set to be on the payroll next season but at a measly $375 grand and so is Theo Ratliff at just over 1.3 million. For each of them next season is the final year of their contracts and neither holds options for extensions. We're locked in to Jax, and Tyrus Thomas has a qualifying offer clause in his papers. If we're going to do any trading next season, these four men are likely candidates, along with our sophomores Brown and Henderson.
While it's absurdly early to be looking at this and a lot of it is going to change, the crop of free agents that will be available at the end of next season are worth saving for.
At the very top of the list is Kobe Bryant. Right now the idea of Kobe leaving the Lakers seems laughable, as does the idea that LA would let him go. But the former high school wonderkind is no longer a kid and he's showing signs that he's becoming injury prone as the years start to pile up on his resume. His next contract is likely to be his last major signing. At some point, the Lakers are going to have to look to a new generation and a new budding superstar to build the team around.
The other REALLY big name on the list is Carmello Anthony. The speculation alone is enough to increase my heart rate.
The one thing that really stands out is that most of our expiring paper is at center. I think I have better odds of hitting the Power Ball three weeks in a row than Tyson Chandler has of getting another contract with the Bobcats. He's gone. We brought him here to get rid of him. Nazr is one of my absolute favorite Bobcats and I hate losing him. But I'm also a realist. We have just watched Nazr play the best season of hoops he's ever going to play. Everything from here is a downhill slide as his body ages. He's not going to be much good to us and if we do resign him it's going to be for a very short period and for less than he's presently making. This leaves us with no real center unless you really want to use our last ugly contract by starting Diop. As next season comes to a close we are going to be desperate for a true center. As I said, a lot of this is going to change in the next year, but the Bobcats will finally have some money to play with. We know that our biggest hole is going to be at center and that they don't come cheap. We also know that the need to rebuild the Bobcats is still likely to exceed available cash and draft options. Assuming Michael Jordan is able to lock in Raymond Felton, we'll have a pretty solid start in the backcourt. My question to all of you is - where do we go from there?
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The only thing I have a question about is the guys still on the payroll?
Larry Hughes and Theo only have one year contracts right?
That's correct
Hughes, Theo and Graham are all gone after this season unless the Bobcats resign them. Other than Felton and Thomas, everyone else is signed through at least next season.
gotta grab a center in 2011
Al Horford, Kendrick Perkins, Joakim Noah, DeAndre Jordan, Samuel Dalembert, Channing Frye, Greg Oden all should be free agents for 2011, some are restricted FAs. There are a few other bigmen that will be FA that would not offer much more than Diop
did this dude just did this
I'd take Dalembert or Perkins...
Of course…adding Greg Oden…
Insert Greg Oden penis joke here
by andrewlail76 on Mar 28, 2010 6:52 PM EDT up reply actions
Can you imagine what these threads are going to look like if Oden is ever suiting up in a Cats uni?!?!?!?
by Ourdaywillcome on Mar 28, 2010 7:57 PM EDT up reply actions
the internet police might have to shut the site down
overload of penis jokes
did this dude just did this
by OldschoolBlue on Mar 29, 2010 8:40 PM EDT up reply actions
i think they're the same guys from southpark the universe police
did this dude just did this
by OldschoolBlue on Mar 29, 2010 8:40 PM EDT up reply actions
OK at Center
Bobcats have Ajinca, Chandler, Diop, Nazr, and Theo. Next year we should be fine at Center. Hopefully the added skills and size Ajinca showed in the D-League will continue next year. Chandler is an expiring contract and thus very valuable. If LB & MJ decide not to keep Chandler and feel they need another Center, they will use an expiring contract trade to grab another Center.
Even with a talented playoff team, LB & MJ will continue to seek upgrades next year, but maybe not as many as previous years.
gotta be honest
Ajinca as a viable option is pointless as long as we have the current lineup. I would LOVE to say this kid is GOING to develop into someone we can trust, but He needs to BULK UP and work on the fundamentals. If Tim Duncan has a camp for big men…Ajinca should be the first to sign up.
"Smokey this isn't 'Nam this is bowling. There are rules!"
I show Theo is expiring this year.
We don’t owe him anything next year.
http://www.storytellerscontracts.info/resources/09-10salaries.htm
He has still done a good job and may have a role with the team next year.
Nazr just needs to get healthy or he will be traded to a team that needs an expiring contract early in the season next year.
Why are we talking about next year anyway? Maybe May/June would be a better time.
Don't blame ourday
We’re used to talk about next year sometime in January. I’m surprised we’ve all held out this long.
For the record, I don't feel "blamed" about anything.
I wrote the post because it was an off-day for the club and I thought it would make good conversation fodder.
You are correct. Theo and Hughes are both done at season’s end.
Nazr doesn’t have, and isn’t likely to develop, the stamina to play 30 minutes a game throughout a season. He’s also not getting any younger. I’m not saying he’s useless, I’m saying he’s heading into the definite twilight of his career. He might make a good backup for a season or two, but his days as a dependable starter are just about over.
What got me started on this was that I got to thinking about Chandler’s contract and what the team might be able to do with the money that would be freed up. I’m hoping that we’re able to sign Felton for a healthy 5-year hitch. There is zero doubt in my mind that at least 3 of those years are going to be north of the $10 million rate. That in and of itself is going to chomp a hefty bite out of our big picture, but if he stays healthy, he’s going to be worth it, in my opinion. (and that’s coming from someone who was very vocal at the start of the season about DJ taking over and Felton being good trade bait.)
by Ourdaywillcome on Mar 28, 2010 11:25 PM EDT up reply actions
am i the only one who thinks...
raymond felton isn’t the answer? maybe i have a bad taste in my mouth knowing we could’ve had deron williams or chris paul, but it just seems to may that raymond makes too many bad decisions a game. he’s a top 8 point guard in the league, but, let’s take last night’s game into consideration… three times in the fourth quarter, he drove the lane and instead of kicking out, he got trapped inside and was blocked… a quality point gaurd knows in that situation to drive to the lane, but stop and either take an uncontested fadeaway, draw a foul, or hit one of the guys who were wide open (three bodies in the middle means someone has to be open, right?)
Read the game thread - just the part from the last 30 seconds of the game to the end.
You will find that yes, you are alone.
Night after night that play works for Raymond. Multiple times that play has resulted in the win or a chance for the win.
It may be that teams around the league are now aware enough of it that they will start to defend bettter against it the same way they did the old “Dallas” play the Hornets used to close games. If that’s true, it’s on LB to draw something different up on the clipboard. But you said it yourself. We’re closing out the season with a top 8 point guard. We didn’t start the season with one. Who’s there? Same guy. He deserves a lot of credit for his improvement over the course of a single season – especially when he spent several earlier seasons on autopilot.
After the game last night, LB discussed the final play in the press conference. He spoke about poor execution. But he then singled out Boris Diaw by name and said, “the kid (Felton) ALWAYS does his best” no matter what gets asked of him. I feel deeply sorry for DJ Augustin. Not only does he have a coach that is VERY hard on backcourt players, he’s playing on the squad with the rare guy that does it the way Brown WANTS it done. Someday Augustin is going to be a very happy point guard. It won’t be on a team with Larry Brown at the helm.
by Ourdaywillcome on Mar 30, 2010 12:35 PM EDT up reply actions
It depends on how much they pay him.
He’s a starting-quality PG, which is relatively difficult to find. If he wants to be paid like a star, then, no, he probably isn’t worth it.
If he’s fine with Beno Udrih/Jameer Nelson money, then it’d be silly to let him walk.
by Spider Jerusalem on Mar 30, 2010 3:19 PM EDT up reply actions
precisely...
he’s good enough to start for about 15 teams in the NBA right now, but he’s certainly no game changer, and in my opinion, not a necessity
yes but
even if it works 1000 times, a good point gaurd will know the time it’s not going to work
and even i was stretching it saying he was a top 8 point gaurd, because his assist to turnover ratio is awful and right now i can name 8 point gaurds better than him… i will give him the (very small) benefit of the doubt though, because i swear at least once a game he gets credited for a turnover that should be tyson chandler’s fault. but when you stack raymond up against the other elite point gaurds, he just doesn’t cut it…
raymond needs to learn to draw more contact so he can go to the line more than 2.2 times per game, although he’s one of the poorer ft shooting PG’s in the league, so maybe that’s not the answer either
raymond’s positives are that he can create his own shot and has great shot selection (this season particularly), and he’s a more than capable man defender, but when you take his turnovers into account, his lack of true floor leadership, his below average free throw shooting and his pace adjusted per 48 numbers into account, he’s nothing more than average
he's closer to the top than bottom
lately his assist to turnover ratio is beautiful but he did have 4 against Washington
top PGs in my mind not necessarily in order
Chris Paul
Deron Williams bought booms beard lite
Steve Nash how the hell does he do it at this age
Chauncey Billups getting older
Jason Kidd old
Rajon Rondo if he develops more of a shooting touch he will be a killer
Derrick Rose same as Rondo, more consistent shot
Tyreke evans is a 2 guard playing point this year
Stephen Curry should be a 2 guard but Monte isn’t a point and numbers are inflated with GSW probably shouldn’t be on the list but he’s from Charlotte
Ricky Rubio just threw him in here to see if you’re paying attention
Ray isn’t better than most of these players but the way he’s playing now, if they can sign him at a discounted price compared to those guys, would be great. like adam said, he plays very strong D. but i believe he’s a better than average pg, and in the clutch well above average especially for this team. his FT percentage goes up in the 4th as well. I don’t see him getting worse as a player in the coming years. it’s all about the amount of $$$$ he and his agent want
did this dude just did this
by OldschoolBlue on Mar 30, 2010 8:39 PM EDT up reply actions
curry...
was drafted into the nba as a projected point gaurd, he has excellent vision and passing skills
he is a baller
did this dude just did this
by OldschoolBlue on Mar 31, 2010 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions
I only quoted your own statistic.
Do I think Felton is among the elite? Heck no. He’s a lot better player now than he was on opening night and I don’t believe he’s peaked yet. He has said in the past that he’d like to stay in Charlotte. He’s also turned down one contract offer from the Bobcats in the past. Now there is an additional incentive for him to want to be here. Raymond knows full well that he owes much of his improvement to the tutellage of Larry Brown. He also knows that he’s still a work in process and Brown has many more things to teach him. I think RayRay will want to be wherever Brown is running the game.
Felton makes mistakes. But there is one positive about him that I think you left out in your comments. No matter what the score of the game, Raymond Felton never once stops giving his all. It’s a quality he shares with several others on the team including Wallace and Jackson. Earlier in the season, Felton would try to take over and be the “crunch time” option for the team, often with disastrous results. Now, when he displays that tendency he does it with confidence and a lot of success. It didn’t work out against the Raptors, but I’m not only less nervous seeing him with the ball in the closing seconds, I’ve seen enough results from him that I’m actually optimistic whenever it happens. Your mileage may vary and that’s fine.
This year he became a better than average point guard. I think that when he does hit his peak in two years or so, it’s likely that he WILL be among the elite at his position.
by Ourdaywillcome on Mar 30, 2010 11:23 PM EDT up reply actions
I think another incentive
that will weigh on Felton is the opportunity to play for “Team Jordan”. In the beginning, I really couldn’t envision someone signing with a team because of who their owner is, but now with Mike being around and saying he’s going to do everything he can to get his personal investment to a championship contender, I believe him. MJ has a lot more power as an owner than as a GM. I believe Felton will absolutely be back. I thought Tyrus would as well. I’m still leaning towards him staying because he’s a RFA, but he’s kinda fallen a little out of the rotation as of late. I know he hurt his ankle, but I don’t know if Larry has soured on his shot selection. Either way, if we lose Felton and Thomas, we should be able to fill both spots without losing too much traction in the East. I like the sign and trade option for T.J. Ford if Felton leaves. But, I’d rather keep them both.
by Charlotte Bobcat on Mar 31, 2010 8:42 AM EDT up reply actions
Oh, and also
you’re right on the head with Felton. He’s going to screw up. All players in the NBA do. But the one thing that separates him from a lot of other people is he’s never going to give up. He’s a true coach’s player, and I think he and Larry Brown compliment each other greatly because Felton is willing to learn and Larry is wanting to teach. I think D.J. will be moved before Felton is, as long as Larry is here.
by Charlotte Bobcat on Mar 31, 2010 8:43 AM EDT up reply actions
i agree but...
have you ever seen deron williams or chris paul or steve nash or chauncey billups or even jason kidd give up
it’s not like i’m lumping felton into eddy curry status, i’m really just saying that if felton is going to be asking for top level point gaurd money, we have no business signing him because right now he’s not worth it, and even if he MIGHT be in two years, that’s a risk we shouldn’t take
at the same time, given the other point gaurds in the NBA, I would say that Felton will be the best available this off season, but that still doesn’t mean we should over pay him
I'm with you 100%
He isn’t worth top dollar. I’ve been saying all along that any contract for Felton should be incentive-based. If he averages above X assists per game or X steals per game he gets a nice bump in the wallet. That way, if he continues to improve he gets paid for the effort but if he turns into say, another Diaw type that will give his all one night and then plays like a D-leaguer the next, he can’t get a fat payday just for putting on the sneaks. Right now he isn’t worth top dollar, but he deserves more than he’s making. It comes down to the old business school axiom, “whatever the market will bear.” If other teams are willing to pay him $10 million next season, we should look around at what else is out there and pay him accordingly.
Personally, I think most of the free agents are in for a bad time in the off-season. It looks like the league cap is going to drop by around $5 million or so. That means if a team freed up $20 million they’ll only be able to actually use $15. There’s also a collective bargaining negotiation coming up that doesn’t look to be pleasant. I think a lot of these players going into the process with dollar signs in their eyes are going to find out that the owners aren’t going to be exactly eager to pay top dollar for players with question marks on their stat sheets. Sure the top couple of candidates are going to get mind-boggling money, but I think once those are out of the way, players like Felton that are thinking they can pull in high dollars are gonna be disappointed and most will stay right where they are. Time will tell. A lot of players are money-minded, but quite a few have other reasons besides cash for making their decisions. Many will sign for a team like the Knicks (see, I remembered the “K” this time!) or the Warriors so they can play in a larger tv market even if they’re offered a bit more by Toronto or OKC. Others are wanting a real title shot so they’ll sign with a contender for less so they can go for a ring. In Felton’s case, I’m hoping he’ll be willing to stay in Charlotte for the chance to stay with LB and Jordan rather than get paid a million or so more by some team with coaches that make demands without trying to “grow” player skills in return.
by Ourdaywillcome on Mar 31, 2010 10:25 AM EDT up reply actions
the only thing is
with the big free agent class coming up at the same time as cba, the players are likely to gang up and demand for a salary cap INCREASE, with the most probable outcome is that the cap stays right where it is
Back onto the main topic
What do you think the chances of getting Dwayne Wade in the free agent market are?
Obviously, we wouldn’t resign Raymond Felton. Then we’d have to trade Chandler or Nazr’s expiring contracts for cheap, young role players or late draft picks. Since Chandler is on the books for 13 million, we’re not likely to find a suitor. But Nazr’s 7 million expiring contract is a gold mine, especially for a team looking to develop their young big men for another season, ala the Utah Jazz, particularly if they don’t resign Boozer.
Now I realize, we’d probably be better off waiting two years to try and get Jordan spokesman, Carmelo Anthony, but Wade is with the Jordan brand now, too, and we wouldn’t have to get rid of Gerald Wallace to have Wade, or at the very best, have him compete for playing time against Melo.
Think about it though, if we don’t resign Felton, and trade Nazr, we’ll have about 52.25 million on the books next season. This doesn’t take into account finding replacements for Graham and Ratliff, or any players we’d get in a trade. But let’s say we have to come up with three players. Two of those will come in the second round of this year’s draft (via the J-Rich trade). Second round rookies will probably get no more than a million apiece. So we’re up to 54.25 million roughly. Compare that to the 68.5 million on the books this year, that leaves us with a little over 14 million to spend on Wade and any other player. The cap hit the following season is even lower, so we can afford to sign Wade to a back end deal, creating space for 2011-2012 as well to be in that year’s free agent market.
The one problem with this is that Jax, Diop, Augustin and Henderson all have backend deals as well, so we could be facing luxury tax situations in 2012-2013. But by then, we’ll have been a certain playoff team three years in a row, and I imagine the fans will be filling the stands by then and Wade’s merchandise alone will help in that regard.
But we could afford to have, in 2012-2013 a team that consists of Dwayne Wade, Gerald Wallace, Stephen Jackson, DJ Augustin and Gerald Henderson and whatever free agent we might’ve been lucky to sign in 2011-2012. Plus around 5-10 million to spend on 5 roleplayers.
LOL
the chances are zero
http://sonicsgate.org/movie/index.php?hd=0
F*** Clay Bennett. And Charlotte thinks George Shinn is a douchebag.
by Ben Swanson on Mar 31, 2010 10:43 AM EDT up reply actions
yeah i know
but a man can dream… i give this about the same chances as carmello anthony playing in charlotte lol
No Chance at all – the Bobcats are over the cap without resigning any of their free agents. That means they can offer a free agent from another team no more than the Mid-Level Exception this year. Wade’s agent won’t even take that phone call.
This year’s free agent options are resigning Felton or (not and) Thomas, or letting them both walk and signing someone cheaper with the MLE.
what is the difference
between salary cap and tax level?
i know that once teams go over the cap level they pay 100% of every dollar over the cap in tax, but is there a penalty for being over the cap but under the tax level, or a period of time where a team can operate between the cap and the tax level?
Two different figures
The salary cap is the amount that a team is not allowed to exceed when signing free agents from other teams. With a few exceptions, a team can exceed the salary cap to sign its own free agents and draft picks. Also, a team has exceptions, such as the Mid-Level and Bi-Annual, which it can use to sign free agents from other teams while exceeding the cap.
If a team’s payroll exceeds the luxury tax threshold, the NBA charges a dollar for dollar tax on the amount exceeding the threshold. This figure is always greater than the salary cap. The tax is distributed to the teams that stay under the threshold with the NBA keeping a portion. So a team exceeding the threshold is both taxed and loses out on receiving a payout from all the other luxury tax teams.
Both the salary cap and luxury tax threshold are set by the NBA each year and will be anounced just before the start of free agency. Based on the league’s projections for these figures, the salary cap is expected to decline to around $50 – 54 million next season, and the luxury tax threshold is projected between $60 and $65 million. I’ve heard reports that NBA attendance and revenue haven’t declined as much as the league thought they might this year, and the cap and threshold will likely be near the high end of the NBA’s projections.
The Bobcats already have guarranteed $59.5 million before signing any players (Felton or Thomas) or draft picks. They have never paid the luxury tax, and Jordan is on record saying that paying the tax makes no economic sense for the Bobcats, who have lost money every year since they began play. So there is very little money left over for free agents this off-season. The Bobcats will need to get creative (i.e. dump a player in trade for nothing in return) just to re-sign Felton and not pay the tax.
Excellent explanation.
Just to add a wee bit of specifics here (and I’m by no means the resident expert on the subject so take this with a grain of salt) regarding Raymond Felton:
He turned down a $10 million extension once already. I believe this was just before training camp started up this season.
When you factor in what we can offer him there are a few things to keep in mind:
1. He’s getting a few bucks over $5.5 million this season. This is only relevant because it’s going to cost us quite a bit more than that to get him resigned.
2 The current payroll for next season (assuming that Chandler is certain to take his player option for next year and stay with the team for $12,750,000 and we pick up our own option on Thomas for $6.25 million) comes to just over $59.5 million bucks – as ClipCat stated.
3.Just to have figures to work with, let’s say the league settles on a $54 million cap next season with a $62 million luxury cap. Technically, this give us $2.5 million to play with before hitting the luxury figure. Jordan will NOT want to come that close.
4. The $59.5 million does include Thomas’ $6.25 million. Presumably, if another team makes an offer for Thomas and the Cats decide not to match it, we will lose Tyrus and free up that money for another player (Felton being the likely candidate).
There are several ways around the cap. From what I’ve been able to research (and this gets complicated in a hurry) Felton is eligible for what’s called an “Early Bird Exception.” To qualify, a player has to have played at least 2 seasons without changing teams or being traded. He can then be resigned for up to 175% of his salary from the previous season without it counting against the cap. That means we can offer Felton somewhere in the neighborhood of $8 million if I’m correct about his eligibility. There is also a “bi-annual exception” that allows a team to spend a certain amount on a free agent provided they didn’t use the exception the previous season. The amount of this exception next season is $2.08 million. I have no idea if this can be added to one of the other exceptions or not. I also don’t know if the Cats used their exception up already this season on another player.
It looks as if the Cats may have to try to trade away a couple of players to free up cap room if they really want to keep their hands (claws?) on Felton. Unfortunately, we still hold some contracts that are killing us salary-wise and it’s unlikely many teams will be interested in dealing for the players we’d be most eager to shop around. For example, Diaw is slated to make $9 million per season and he’s locked in for 2 full seasons. Diop has a similar deal but his is for between $6.5 and $7 million for the 2 seasons. Those two players offer the most wriggle room if we can get someone interested. Just to mention the unthinkable (because most of us also thought trading Okafor was unthinkable until it happened) Gerald Wallace is slated to make roughly $10 million per season for the next several seasons. It’s a safe bet though that if the Cats even HINT that Wallace is on the market they won’t sell 500 seats to a single game next season.
The Bobcats are going to have to get pretty creative in order to hold on to Felton and keep Thomas at the same time.
This is what’s in front of us in regards to keeping Felton in town as best I understand it. Hopefully someone like ClipCat or one of the others here that are more familiar with the salary game than I am can fill in the gaps in what I just laid out – or correct any errors I might have made.
by Ourdaywillcome on Mar 31, 2010 4:19 PM EDT up reply actions
Diaw still has some trade value.
So I wouldn’t be surprised to see him shopped.
Ray does have Bird Year eligibility so the Cats are able to go over the cap to resign him.
But a deal shipping Diaw would clearly free up some space to keep Ray and Tyrus and ultimately nab a backup PF or give Derrick Brown some more burn at PF even though he’s a natural SF.
But I have no clue who I would ship Diaw for.
If the Bobcats are seeking cap room, the idea would be to trade him for nothing. There have been several deals like that by teams trying to get under the salary cap. The biggest one I can recall was the Nuggets’ trade of Marcus Camby to the Clippers two years ago for the rights to switch 2nd round draft picks this season. These types of deals usually happen late in the off-season after major free agent signings so we’ll have to watch which teams don’t use up their cap space this summer.
thank you
both for those explanations…
that said, wouldn’t raymond be considered for normal bird rights, having played 5 full seasons in the NBA, (at least) three for the same team (obviously all 5 have been with the cats)? meaning we can sign him to the maximum nba salary without penalty? NOT THAT WE WOULD!
Also, when we traded for Thomas, wouldn’t we have gotten his early bird rights?
So, theoretically, couldn’t we resign Felton and then resign Thomas for 2 years using his early bird rights so we’re not penalized? Then we would be “legally” over the salary cap and able to sign a MLE player.
With regards to salary penalties, is it the end result that matters or would it be like, we couldn’t resign Felton and go over the penalty, and then resign Thomas to get back under it?
Jordan may not want to spend the money, but I doubt fans are going to want to see a playoff team tank because they lack depth due to salary constraints. Are the Bobcats a playoff team without a decent PG? Doubtful. Perhaps if we let Felton go we can find someone who’ll play for MLE?
I still like our chances of trading Nazr for a late second round draft pick.
Cap Figures and Ty Thomas
OurDay provided some good info in his post. However, I’m pretty sure the Bobcats’ $59.5 M commitment does not include Ty Thomas. Next year’s commitments (in millions):
$12.8 – Tyson Chandler
$9.9 – Gerald Wallace
$9.0 – Boris Diaw
$8.5 – Stephen Jackson
$6.9 – Nazr Mohammed
$6.5 – DeSagana Diop
$2.5 – DJ Augustin
$2.1 – Gerald Henderson
$1.5 – Alexis Ajinca
That comes out to a total of $59.5 million for nine players when taking out the rounding errors in my figures. To be completely accurate about cap space, the NBA adds cap holds at the minimum salary to fill out the roster (3 @ $0.5 each) so the current cap figure is actually about $61 M.
Ty Thomas will be a Restricted Free Agent just as Felton was last season so Bird Rights aren’t an issue at all with him. Also, the Bobcats don’t have an option on him. To preserve their right to match other teams’ offers, they must make Thomas a Qualifying Offer of $6.3 million for next season. Given the Bobcat’s financial situation, I’d be very surprised if the Bobcats extended him that offer.
We have Bird Rights on Felton and can sign him (and Thomas) for as much as we want up to max contracts. But that doesn’t exempt Charlotte from paying the luxury tax.
For example, if the Bobcats sign Felton to a contract starting at $8 M, sign Thomas with the QO at $6.3, and then round out the roster by signing their two 2nd round picks to minimum deals at about $500K each, the team’s cap figure would be around $75 Million. They would likely have to pay at least $10 million in luxury tax to the NBA. The only way that scenario will happen is if the Bobcats also have a deal in which they can give/trade away some salary to a team under the cap, such as Boris Diaw and Alexis Ajinca for a future 2nd round pick.
See, this is what I was talking about a couple of weeks ago
when I posted that ROF was the best NBA blog on SBNation.
Where else will you find a discussion thread like this? If anyone wants to dig a little deeper into the NBA experience or learn a bit more about the nature OR business of the game there isn’t a better place I’ve found anywhere to do it. In my post I said I’d learned more in one season at ROF than I had as a “regular” fan in my entire life. It’s threads like this that provided my education.
It’s rare to find someone that can explain complex matters in terms that “regular Joes” can understand. This place is packed with them. Individually we may not get ALL the facts straight, but collectively our various skills and knowledge add up and we all walk away smarter for it. I’m glad to be a part of that process.
by Ourdaywillcome on Apr 1, 2010 11:18 AM EDT up reply actions
also...
this assumes we pay Wade 18 million… he’s likely to get 20 million in New York, but this would be hoping he’s willing to play for Jordan for a little less, maybe if they increase Wade’s endorsement deals to compensate (dunno the legality of that, but I’m sure Jordan could pull it off)
just realized
wade can only get 30% of the cap, or 11 million, whichever is more… so the max he could get would be basically what he’s getting now
miami could sign him to the bird right contract, but unless they trade him, only miami can pay him the league max
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